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The French army has already carried out an “internal investigation” into the circumstances in which three people died during one of its convoy patrols in Niger, Defence Minister Florence Parly said Sunday, in response to a request from the Nigerien government for a probe.
“There was an internal investigation, which showed that in the face of great violence, our soldiers demonstrated the necessary control and reacted adequately,” she said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche.
On Friday, Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum had called for an investigation into the French military convoy heading to Mali that sparked violent protests and led to the deaths of three people.
The convoy making ran into trouble in Niger last month after being delayed by protests in Burkina Faso, with the Nigerien government reporting three deaths and more than a dozen wounded.
The supply convoy, which arrived on African soil in Ivory Coast earlier in the month, had crossed into Burkina Faso before entering Niger on its way to Mali.
It was heading for a base at Gao, central Mali, a hub of France’s Barkhane operation which is shoring up allies in the Sahel against a jihadist insurgency that began in northern Mali nearly a decade ago.
But clashes broke out at Tera in western Niger.
Three people were killed by shots, which some blamed on Nigerien forces and others on the French.
The defence minister said dialogue was continuing with Niamey over the incident.
“We continue to discuss with the Nigerien authorities to understand what happened before, during and after these clashes,” Parly said.
“We have a very high quality dialogue with Nigeriens which, I hope, will help prevent any new event of this type,” she said.
The convoy has become a cause of hostility towards the French armed forces in the Sahel, which are expanding their presence in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, among populations exasperated by omnipresent jihadist violence.
The anti-French discourse is fuelled by “political actors in their own interest or under external influence,” Parly said.
“But where our soldiers are present, the population understand that these are forces of protection and reassurance because it is they who are the first target of terrorists,” she said.
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